Your website represents your entire business online. It’s the digital representation of your brand and the only way you’re going to get any online clients. Your website should, therefore, be designed and built to be professional, efficient and user-friendly. But, should you build your own website or is it better to search for alternative solutions?

In this post we will look at the pros of both opting to build your own website, as well as outsourcing it to a third-party site builder.

Build your own website if…

You are tech savvy.

If you know how to build a website well, then you might want to have a go at it. There would be no point in hiring someone else to do it for you if you are already adept at creating websites.

Of course, building a website isn’t just about creating linked pages under a domain. Apart from the structure and basic content, you’ll need to think about search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM). A lot of work goes into making sure the world can find your website and if no one can find you, your efforts will have been a waste of time.

Your business is in website building.

Another good reason you would want to build your own website is if your business itself involves creating sites for other businesses. If you can do the whole job yourself, it wouldn’t be right to outsource the job.

And that’s not all – not too many of your clients would be willing to hand over the creation and maintenance of their website to you once they find out you had someone else do it for you. Instead, show off your skills and build an amazing site your clients will want for themselves.

Your business has its own IT department.

Businesses with their own IT department can have staff handle the building of their company’s website. This task can be added to their other responsibilities, but it will also mean you’ll need to have employees who are not only great at frontend development, but have a knack for design and user experience.

Money is tight.

If you’re just starting out, there’s a chance you might be watching where every cent goes. Again, if you know the basics to building a minimal website, you can go ahead and do so.

Once there is an increase in cash flow, you can pass the job on to professionals or hire designers and programmers to tackle the expansion.

You can use free website builders.

Believe it or not, there are free website building tools you can use to create sites that look and feel impressively professional. For example, Wix makes it easy for anyone to build their own site, and includes useful features and customizations you’ll love.

Do some research on free website building tools to see which ones meet your requirements.

Don’t build your own website if…

You have no clue how to do it.

Not everyone was cut out to be a process planner and designer. Your website may need to have certain integrated business processes. If you have no clue about which process will start and end where, or how it will integrate with another part of your business, you’d probably need to get someone else who does.

Your business involves complex processes,.

Sometimes, even when you know how your business functions, it can be difficult to have all the processes function together as they should. Integration and dependencies in business process keep even the most talented coders awake at night.

You should be doubly careful if your processes deal with money and finances.

Security is your highest concern.

Hackers target small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) because they know their data won’t be as secure as that of larger corporations. They also know a big fuss won’t be made if a few hundred credit card records are stolen from a “mom and pop” store because the victims won’t have the power to track the culprits and bring them to justice.

And so, if you process or store your clients’ personal and financial details, you should let security and web designing experts handle your website – and its server or data storage – security for you. Don’t take any risks here.

There’s no one to keep updating your website.

Building a website doesn’t stop once your site is live. A website is a constantly transforming and growing entity.

Someone should update the software, improve the process flow and add fresh content to your site if you want it to perform as well as it should. Even if you’ve managed to build the website, don’t stunt its growth by starving it of the technical know-how it needs to establish your brand and grow into a truly global entity.

The bottom line is…

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to who should build your business website. Take stock of your situation and take the next step. The bottom line is you can’t have a business without a website – build it one way or the other.